Notas tomadas durante la presentación de Marianne Briscoe (realizada en inglés sin traducción) el 6 de noviembre de 2008 en Buenos Aires.
Best practices are "best practices" because they work. Therefore, you should develop them and adjust your conduct to them to be effective. Maybe you have to adapt US best practices to your own culture, but it would be a mistake to discard them on the basis that "things are done differently here".
While tax laws may provide a push, tax laws are not enough to make donations happen. Philanthropy must be in people's hearts. You have to create the "heart" for philanthropy i.e. create the climate to make "our" organization the place where people want to give.
A number of questions were raised by the audience:
- How do you convince people to give to an "elite" institution when there are so many other more urgent needs?
- How do you get in touch with Argentines living abroad?
- How to make Alumni grateful so they are inclined to give?
- How do you develop awareness within the institution that fundraising takes a lot of time (About 30% of the president's time).
- How big should a fundraising office be?
- How do you make a development committee work
Most of these questions were addressed during the course of the presentation.
Where is Fundraising Going?
- The economy
- Giving
- Where will the gifts go?
- Where do they come from?
The present economic crisis is dreadful for fundraising. Particularly in the US where people tend to concentrate gifts in the last quarter due to tax effects.
You will have to face the psychology of loses. Volatility in the markets is frightening. Until the markets level up, it will be tough for fundraising. Economy is always a factor and particularly so in the present context.
However, note that philanthropy has remained leveled in constant terms since 1920.
Philanthropy is about heart and about psychology.
Who gets it?
You have to sustain your efforts through difficult times and improve your methods to get your share.
Besides, you have to continue pampering your donors to be first in his/her mind when he/she is ready to give again.
Alumni giving
Alumni giving to universities has remained steady. The way it is achieved has changed. Less people give larger amounts.
Donors who are highly committed will continue to give. Donors who are not that committed will concentrate on their core interest. You have to work to be the core interest of as many donors as possible.
Building and sustaining relationship with donors are more important than ever in the present context.
If you have been aggressive acquiring new donors you run the risk of losing many of them due to the crisis.
It takes three years of efforts to consolidate a relationship to maintain a steady donor. Once they have given three times, it is easier to keep them.
Telemarketing is very expensive. To evaluate the return on the investment look at a three year time spam.
You have to call 10 people to get a donor.
Where do gifts go?
No statistics available.
More than half of philanthropy goes to education. Therefore, we are in the right business!
Where do gifts come from?
90% come from individuals.
Corporations are not there to give the money away. The decision making process is long and very complicated, unless it is a very closely held corporation.
You need a strategy for each segment, but you should focus on individuals.
Any community should have a clear idea of its 100 best donors.
Rich people and alumni are your best prospects.
One must convey the message that "their Money" is making things happen in our institution.
Trends in University Fundraising
-well established in some US Schools
- Not even started in others
-long, comprehensive
-huge development staff
-flat gift pyramids
- Decentralized staffing and campaigns
The message should be "tuition is not enough to pay for your education", "you are profiting from what others have given, you have to give, even if initially your gift is small, to allow others to enjoy the same education you enjoyed."
Creating a sense of allegiance is crucial, before getting gifts.
Alumni relationship programs will get you Money.
Keep records of your alumni, keep them current. They are your "core" donors.
Many schools give them a school email address.
Mega campaigns generally have a quiet phase which is very important to get a sense of how much you can raise and to have a significant floor when you publicly launch the campaign. Often, universities are half way through getting the money they want when they announce the campaign.
Capital campaigns take about 7 years in the US.
Two types of pyramids of donors:
Cairo where you get 1donation of 10M; 2 of 5M, 4 of 2.5M. Top gift being somewhere between 10 and 15% of the total.
Chichen Itza where you get 4 gifts of 2.5M; 8 of 1.2M.
Big campaigns are more like Chichen Itza pyramids.
Big campaigns generally have decentralized staffing and campaigns with such staff in different locations and different schools involved.
Different offices should get involved in a mega campaign:
- Public Relationships
- Communications
- Fund Raising (solicitation, corporations, foundations, individuals)
- Alumni Relationships
For this purpose: research, records and data systems are crucial.
MOVES
Series of steps that you take with your donors:
- Identifying
- Qualifying (research)
- Cultivating
- Asking
- Closing
Trends in Major Giving
Incremental gifts
- importance of resolicitation (add to initial gift), stewardship
- sequential giving
For capacity, not need (Harvard cannot raise money for need. They are very rich. People give money to Harvard for what Harvard can do with their money). This is a good answer to the objection to giving to an "elite" institution.
To visionary leaders
For focused purposes
- restricted gifts
- ROI (return on investment)
Your best prospect for your next gift is someone who has already made a gift. The lapse between gifts should not be that long and probably may be shorter than you think.
The message should be "our institution is the instrument that you can direct to your interests"
If one is a donor one wants to make and investment in "the best".
There must be agreement on quality.
Sometimes gifts are drawn because of tight relationship between someone at the University and the donor (remember the case of Larry Summers and Larry____).
Ability of leaders to express a sell a vision is crucial.
"People give to people" means "royals give to royals" not "commoners give to commoners".
Restricted gifts
Make sure the restrictions imposed on gifts allow the institution to carry out its vision.
Make sure you talk clearly about the vision. Otherwise, the donor may think about the "future" he/she wants.
One has to be creative about telling how restricted a gift may be.
"Convince donors to make an investment in the institution to make real a vision they believe in".
Teacher's salaries
Tuition support…allows you to release budget money.
Come up with something that will capture the donor's imagination. "give me a horse to ride".
Strategic planning
Translate that into visionary leaders that can talk about return on investment.
Determine what is the basis you have to establish before asking (e.g. business plan for a Symphony Hall, demography of audiences).
Establish qualitative return on investment.
Are you competing with others in numbers (of graduates)? Or is the outcome of your students what counts?
Establish case statements: Why should a donor give to you.
Single central story about the university. Objectives for specific cases.
Come up with a list of hard questions. Have the board work on those questions. The exercise brings up many points of view and provides raw material for case study.
Objections: raise objections (to the specific requests), prepare the answers.
Strategies for Fundraising People
Volunteer leader involvement
Boards, visiting committees, alumni programs
Individuals and businesses
Visiting Committees
They have no legal responsibility. They are the Dean's voluntary board, to support the program of the Dean. It is better not to call them "Advisory Committee" since if you ask for their advice they expect that you follow it. Composed of relevant Alumni, professors, professors of other universities, etc.
You bring them to the University for a day, have them meet with excellent students, a professor gives an update on a subject of interest and then you carry out a business meeting where the Dean talks about its vision, priorities. You check how this compares with what is going on at other schools, etc. You test them with relevant people.
A board member may chair this Advisory Committee.
It is in fact a club of people interested in some aspect of the University.
Alumni programs should be able to manage volunteers
Alumni engagement
Personal gain
Giving back
Engaging in the future of the University
You have to get the message through that it takes money to be number one. It takes money to maintain the quality of Alumni's degrees. If the school is down rated, their degree is devalued.
Strategy
Decision making process at a University is a very difficult process. When you develop a vision, it must be a vision that the faculty owns, that they are committed to. Developing it from the base upwards gives it a kind of authority that "finger" does not have.
It takes long to develop a strategic plan and besides, you must update it continuously. Your strategic plan should provide the "horses to ride on".
Strategies- Needs
What are you asking donors to fund?
How are you deciding what to ask for? Strategic vision
When you are not campaigning, what do you do?
The strategic vision is at the base of every campaign. Tell me why? Be able to clearly describe R.O.I.
Strategies-Techniques
Annual fund
- direct marketing; major gifts
Major gifts
- what you need vs. what you can do
The pipeline
- Alumni, alumni, alumni
- What they expect; what they can do for you
Broadcast marketing
-publications, press, push and pull web.
Volunteers
- Use their time respectfully
- Provide material in advance
- Purpose of the meeting is to opine on materials not to read
- Challenging
Then they get involved
